Three quarters wish they received financial education

More than three quarters of UK adults who did not receive financial education at school wish they had, according to research by Quilter.

The company found 77 per cent of UK adults did not or could not recall receiving financial education at school.

Of this group, 79 per cent of wished they had received some form of financial education.

Quilter surveyed 2,000 adults in October to mark the start of Talk Money Week, which aims to get more people talking about their finances to improve money management across the UK.

Jane Goodland, corporate affairs director at Quilter, said: "Over the past number of years we’ve seen a disturbing number of statistics on the financial fragility of UK household finances. Despite this financial education remains worryingly absent from the school curriculum.

"Common sense would dictate that if we want to give the next generations the best chance at financial success we need to give them the tools and education to do so. Financial education isn’t going to fall on deaf ears, the population is craving it.

"Part of financial education includes understanding value for money. The government needs to realise that financial education offers incredible value for money for them in terms of policy making because it treats the cause of the epidemic of under saving and reliance on debt rather than the symptoms."

The data also revealed only 12 per cent of parents claimed their children received some form of financial education.

It found 98 per cent of respondents claimed financial education should be taught in school and 41 per cent believed it should be part of the primary school curriculum.

This came as Quilter was campaigning for financial education to be included as part of the primary school curriculum.

Kusal Ariyawansa, a chartered financial planner at Manchester-based Appleton Gerrard, said: "The only financial education I got was that loans and debt were evil. The first time I understood the impact of interest was as a student, seeing the impact of forgetting to make a payment, and having to pay a fine plus interest. It was a steep learning curve. Had I known about such basics I would not have missed that payment.

"Schools must teach everyone the basics around money both functionally and practically. Access to money/debt is easy when you don't need it - meaning you must be knowledgeable enough to avoid scenarios of not being able to access that money when you need it the most."